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Recession Briefing 7.30: Downturn Crushing California Wine

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

The effect of the recession on the California wine industry has been brutal. Wine is a cash-flow business, and all along the pipeline, from farm to production to sales, cash is not flowing. (New York Times/The Pour)

The unusual new faces of joblessness in this groundbreaking recession are those of older white men cut loose from employment at the peak of their earning power and work experience. (USA Today)

More than 90 percent of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas saw their unemployment rates climb in June from the previous month. (Associated Press)

The global recession may end toward the end of 2009 — instead of sooner — but the global recovery in 2010 will be anemic and well below trend, writes Nouriel Roubini. (Forbes)

New jobless claims rose last week to 584,000, but the Department of Labor says the trend is pointing down. (NPR)

There is an urgency for politicians to show that spending programs designed to stimulate the economy are working — even if that means stretching the facts. (USA Today)

Instead of hunkering down and holding out for the economy to recover, Whole Foods has been experimenting with ways of convincing America that it was, in fact, an affordable place to shop, without actually slashing prices store-wide. (The Big Money)

Construction on more than 10 percent of 1,306 planned skyscrapers was on hold at the end of June, and there were 11 percent fewer such projects under way compared with six months ago, a report released on Tuesday said. (Reuters)

The battered housing market appears to be on the mend, with sales climbing nationally and prices leveling off, even rising in some spots.  (Washington Post)

With so much bad news in the workplace, gallows humor is making a comeback. (Wall Street Journal)

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Tags: business, eating, News, real estate, The Unemployed Life, The Working World